Establishing New Federal Food-Buying Procedures Would Help Eliminate Unnecessary Special Examinations

Highlights

GAO reviewed federal practices for accepting food purchases to determine if federal costs could be decreased by reducing the number of special examinations necessary to ensure the quality of accepted products.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Department of Agriculture	The Secretaries of Agriculture and Defense and the Administrator of Veterans Affairs should direct their respective food-buying agencies to establish procedures which would require that the costs and benefits of certification be weighed before deciding to require that specific food purchases be certified. To determine the cost of certification which may be required for a specific food purchase, the buying agency should request suppliers to identify the food price with and without the cost of certification and inform prospective suppliers that certification costs may be waived for qualifying suppliers.	Closed – Implemented USDA has revised some certification requirements for meat and poultry purchases and is evaluating each of its buying programs to reduce certification costs.
Department of Defense	The Secretaries of Agriculture and Defense and the Administrator of Veterans Affairs should direct their respective food-buying agencies to establish procedures which would require that the costs and benefits of certification be weighed before deciding to require that specific food purchases be certified. To determine the cost of certification which may be required for a specific food purchase, the buying agency should request suppliers to identify the food price with and without the cost of certification and inform prospective suppliers that certification costs may be waived for qualifying suppliers.	Closed – Implemented DOD is studying the feasibility of a method for obtaining bids with and without certification costs included.
Veterans Administration	The Secretaries of Agriculture and Defense and the Administrator of Veterans Affairs should direct their respective food-buying agencies to establish procedures which would require that the costs and benefits of certification be weighed before deciding to require that specific food purchases be certified. To determine the cost of certification which may be required for a specific food purchase, the buying agency should request suppliers to identify the food price with and without the cost of certification and inform prospective suppliers that certification costs may be waived for qualifying suppliers.	Closed – Implemented VA has issued procedures to implement this recommendation.
Department of Agriculture	To assist buyers in weighing the benefits of certification, the Secretaries of Agriculture and Defense and the Administrator of Veterans Affairs should direct their buying agencies to establish procedures for obtaining available information on suppliers' qualifications and past records of performance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).	Closed – Implemented USDA is using records of performance from FSIS in evaluating suppliers' qualifications. USDA stated that it had not found any FDA information which would be helpful.
Department of Defense	To assist buyers in weighing the benefits of certification, the Secretaries of Agriculture and Defense and the Administrator of Veterans Affairs should direct their buying agencies to establish procedures for obtaining available information on suppliers' qualifications and past records of performance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).	Closed – Not Implemented DOD stated that it did not agree with this recommendation because neither FDA nor FSIS presently has the capability to provide meaningful information on the ultimate qualification of suppliers to comply with DOD contract requirements.
Veterans Administration	To assist buyers in weighing the benefits of certification, the Secretaries of Agriculture and Defense and the Administrator of Veterans Affairs should direct their buying agencies to establish procedures for obtaining available information on suppliers' qualifications and past records of performance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).	Closed – Implemented VA has issued procedures to implement this recommendation.
Department of Agriculture	The Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Agricultural Marketing Service to recognize existing safety and quality control systems and to review and revise its certification procedures for meat and poultry products to: (1) eliminate certification procedures that duplicate existing safety inspection procedures; (2) reduce certification effort where FSIS has found that the suppliers' quality control systems provide adequate assurance of product quality; and (3) reconsider the recommendations included in the report on the task force review of meat grading and certification control methods and procedures.	Closed – Implemented USDA has revised its purchase specifications to reduce certification requirements and place greater reliance on the safety inspections performed by FSIS. USDA has also acted to implement the task force's recommendation.

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Topics

Veterans

Cost analysisFood inspectionProcurement practicesQuality controlMeat industryBeefFood safetyQuality assurancePoultryVeterans